Tag: Book Reviews

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Review: ‘The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain’ by Judy Darley

Sam Burt In ‘Why Rivers Run to the Sea’, one of the many flash fictions making up this collection, a river running through Bristol warns us: ‘Don’t try to slow me; I have somewhere to be.’ It’s a tiny, insistent, sensuous story, written in prose that manages to be both economical yet lyrical, and that wisely keeps the river’s personification at the surface level of … Continue reading Review: ‘The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain’ by Judy Darley

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Book cover for In the Cut
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Review: ‘In the Cut’ by Susanna Moore

‘In the cut. From vagina. A place to hide. To hedge your bet. But someplace safe, someplace free from harm’  by Harry Wilding Content Warning: Discussions of sexual violence and gender based violence Susanna Moore’s brutal novel, full of explicit violence and sex, was originally released in 1995, but its depictions of misogyny, the police force and victim blaming has kept it unfortunately relevant for … Continue reading Review: ‘In the Cut’ by Susanna Moore

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Review: ‘Zorrie’ by Laird Hunt

Zoë Wells Finishing Zorrie and finding out, through his acknowledgements section, that Laird Hunt kept a copy of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves on hand throughout the writing process is the least surprising part of a novel that, generally, does not try very hard to surprise you. Zorrie is a gentle book, or at least is trying to be. It follows the life of its titular … Continue reading Review: ‘Zorrie’ by Laird Hunt

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The Brothers Karamazov in Eight Memes

Michael BirdFeedback and Editorials Editor Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brother’s Karamazov is a cornerstone of classic literature centering on the emotional, philosophical turmoil and legal fallout of the murder and robbery of the Karamazov patriarch, Fyodor. This 700+ page saga focuses on themes of faith, morality, and freedom in small-town Russia. And we’ve cut this epitome of Russian literary excellence down to eight memes.  What follows … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov in Eight Memes

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Review: “What Willow Says” by Lynn Buckle

How do you fill the gaps where no words exist? That’s the question at the heart of What Willow Says, a novel which follows the interactions of a deaf granddaughter and her grandmother as the two connect over their shared love of nature. What Willow Says is author Lynn Buckle’s second novel, both published with epoque press. It’s a short book – coming in at … Continue reading Review: “What Willow Says” by Lynn Buckle

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Review: “PowerPoint Eulogy” by Mark Wilson

Zoë Wells With offices opening up and the end of the Work-From-Home year in sight, there might never have been a more relevant book to read than PowerPoint Eulogy, one of Fly on the Wall Press’s latest publications in its “Shorts” series, and artist Mark Wilson’s first poetry pamphlet. Then again, there might never have been a worse time to read it. It is a … Continue reading Review: “PowerPoint Eulogy” by Mark Wilson

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Review : ‘Elatsoe’ by Darcie Little Badger, Illustrations by Rovina Cai

Prachi Pati *CONTENT WARNING: DEATH, XENOPHOBIA, SOME TORTURE AND GORE, MURDER.* Isn’t it great when you discover a book that is under hyped or was never on your radar and you just happened to stumble upon it and it made you really happy? Which is one such book you stumbled upon recently and loved and would recommend to everyone? Elatsoe, written by Darcie Little Badger, … Continue reading Review : ‘Elatsoe’ by Darcie Little Badger, Illustrations by Rovina Cai

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Gray and white cover, a small boy in boots and a green shirt holds a cow skull over his head. He stands to the right of the cover. The top left corner reads "The Beasts They Turned Away" in white block letters. The bottom left corner reads Ryan Dennis in black block letters.
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Review: ‘The Beasts They Turned Away’ by Ryan Dennis

Zoe Wells The old man and the young boy, struggling to make their way through an unforgiving environment. It’s a story you’ve heard before, likely read and enjoyed before, but in Ryan Dennis’s debut, The Beasts They Turned Away, everything familiar is made eerily different. The novel follows Iosac Mulgannon, a farmer, who is taking care of an unnamed young boy in rural Ireland. The … Continue reading Review: ‘The Beasts They Turned Away’ by Ryan Dennis

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An outline of a man standing on a hill. His shadow extends down the hill in the shape of an octopus. Top left-hand corner reads The Octopus Man in block letters. The bottom right hand corner reads Jasper Gibson in block letters. Under Jasper Gibson in white text reads Read by Johnny Flynn.
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Review: The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson

Chiara Pistillo *CONTENT WARNING: MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, INCLUDING SUICIDE* Many of us will probably describe ourselves as progressive, modern, even woke, but we all have our taboos, and schizophrenia and mental health are most certainly some of them. If you have indeed at any point thought that mental health issues are not a serious matter or have turned your head away when faced with this … Continue reading Review: The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson

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Review: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Michael A. Arnold Most people have thought about the future – these days it makes sense to fear it. Other than nuclear weapons, the major threat to our continued survival is climate change. This is another, metaphorical, bomb that could explode and make our planet uninhabitable. The book The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells, published in the summer of 2019 … Continue reading Review: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

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Blue book cover with yellow text at the top and bottom of the cover. Outline of red lips in the center. Yellow text reads Ogadinma Or Everything Will Be Alright. Yellow text at the bottom reads Ukamaka Olisakwe.
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Review: Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All Right by Ukamaka Olisakwe

There’s something unnerving about historical fiction that feels like it could have played out just the same today. Though set in a tumultuous Nigeria in the 1980s, Ogadinma’s themes are sadly, infuriatingly, entirely too relevant today. After a rape turns into an unwanted pregnancy, which in turn is resolved with a dangerous and illegal abortion, seventeen-year-old Ogadinma is forced to leave her home in Kano … Continue reading Review: Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All Right by Ukamaka Olisakwe

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